Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2002, publiée 91ème session CIT (2003)

Convention (n° 29) sur le travail forcé, 1930 - Burkina Faso (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to previous comments. It must therefore repeat its previous observation on the following matters.

1. In its previous comments the Committee referred to articles 178-181 of YATU No. AN VI-008/FP/TRAV of 26 October 1988 issuing the General Public Service Regulations. It again asks the Government to provide information on the criteria for accepting or refusing the resignation of civil servants.

The Committee previously noted the Government’s statement that, when the General Public Service Regulations were revised, all the relevant practices would be made formal to take account of the Committee’s comments on the incompatibility with the Convention of the provisions preventing workers from terminating their employment by means of notice of reasonable length.

In its previous report, the Government indicated that the Committee’s comments have been taken into account in Act No. 013/98/AN of 18 April 1998 issuing the basic statute on public service jobs and public servants.

The Committee noted with regret that the provisions of articles 178-181, on which it commented previously, had been reproduced with no amendment whatsoever as articles 158 and 160 of the new Act. Under these provisions, public servants wishing to resign must apply in writing two months before the presumed date of departure to the Minister of the Public Service, who must notify his agreement or refusal within two months. Public servants who end their employment despite a refusal by the competent authority, before the latter’s express acceptance or before the date set by the authority, are dismissed on grounds of abandoning their duties.

The Committee again emphasizes that, where employment is the result of freely concluded agreement, the effect of statutory provisions preventing termination of employment by means of notice of reasonable length is to turn a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law, which is incompatible with the Convention. The Committee again asks the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure observance of the Convention on this point.

2. Trafficking in persons. The Committee noted that, according to information from several different sources, a large number of women and children are exploited by traffickers for labour purposes. The aim of such trafficking is to exploit their labour in agriculture, domestic work, prostitution and begging.

According to the ILO’s Global Report "Stop forced labour", children from Burkina Faso are forced to work on plantations in Côte d’Ivoire (paragraph 57). Burkina Faso is a sending, receiving and transit country, according to a study by the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security (METSS) of March 2000, cited in the national report of December 2000 on the follow-up to the World Summit for Children, and which refers to the various forms of child exploitation. Most of the children from Burkina Faso sold abroad are employed in agriculture and sometimes subjected to prostitution. The intermediaries, who operate from Côte d’Ivoire, have children delivered to them by intermediaries operating in Burkina Faso (summary report of the subregional project of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC/ILO, 2001): "Combating child trafficking for labour exploitation in Western and Central Africa").

The Committee noted the establishment of a National Commission on the rights of the child and a national committee to supervise observance of the rights of the child. It also noted that a study on child trafficking in Burkina Faso was being conducted jointly by the Ministry of Employment and Labour and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). The Committee again asks the Government to indicate any measures taken to combat trafficking in people and to ensure protection against forced labour.

  Article 25 of the Convention. According to Article 25 of the Convention, the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour must be punished as a penal offence and it is an obligation on any Member ratifying the Convention to ensure that the penalties imposed by law are really adequate and strictly enforced. The Committee observed that, according to the Government’s previous report, no legal proceedings had been instituted to punish those trafficking in persons for labour exploitation.

The Committee noted Act No. 43/96/ADP of 13 November 1996 issuing the Penal Code.

The Committee again asks the Government to provide information on legal proceedings instituted against persons trafficking in human beings and the penalties imposed.

It noted that sections 244 and 245 of the Penal Code establishes penalties of imprisonment for persons forcing adults or minors into begging. The Committee again asks the Government to provide information on the application of these provisions in practice, particularly the number of prosecutions and the penalties imposed.

3. The Committee noted in its previous comments that, according to the Government, in the revision of the Penal Code account would be taken of new forms of exploitation, including certain slavery-like situations such as employment of children in households without any particular status and without adequate remuneration.

It also noted the provisions of Order No. 539/ITLS/HV of 29 July 1954 concerning child labour in all establishments, whatever their nature, and in households, which contains detailed provisions to ensure the protection of children in domestic service and Order No. 545/GTL/HV of 2 August 1954, which prohibits the employment of children under the age of 14 for more than four and a half hours in all per day.

The Committee had asked the Government to provide full particulars of any measures taken to ensure that effect is given to the provisions of the abovementioned Orders. The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no information on this matter. It again asks the Government to provide on the next occasion the particulars requested.